So I arrived in Beijing around 5 days ago now, unfortunately James who may also be known as "sick James" by some after famously throwing up after a quick swim on training managed to miss his flight. So after arriving myslef and the other 19 volunteers who got to the airport on time ended up waiting for him. At the airport we met our China rep who lives in Beijing (Mike) who swiftly shovelled us onto a coach so that we could get to the restaurant which we were already late for. Many of us had unfortunately not slept for about 30 hours so at this point I was starving becuase I adamantly refused all the bad plane food, and also absolutely shattered. The excitement of arriving in China however lifted everyones spirits and we started the week off with a banquet in the restaurant next to the hostel we were staying in. A variety of weird and wonderful food floated around the table including ducks blood jelly (not nice) and some random fungus (nice).

Day 1 - Having had the first sleep in what seemed like a week, I was woken up at the obscenely early hour of 8'o clock local time (we are currently 7 hours ahead of british time (GMT + 8) so it seemed to me that I had barely gotten any sleep. Anyway I woke up and was greeted with a smattering of happy birthdays (as it was my birthday) but shortly that was over and we left the hostel with Mike to go and explore Beijing. Our method of travel for the day was a bunch of bikes we hired from some shifty looking guy on the corner of a road, we set off into a rather smoggy Beijing where there is no such thing as "rules of the road". Definitely a fun experience cycling along (with no helmet, #rebel) through one of the busiest cities in the world. It is literally unbelievable though how many times you hear a horn honking. Although talking about assaults on the senses the smells of Beijing range from tasty to faeces, there was a constant barrage of sound, smell and new sights that were overwhelming. We arrived at out destination to have a meeting with the Manager of Rolls Royce in East Asia who also happened to be a project trust volunteer 30 years ago, he was kind enough to give us a talk on what to expect and to allow us all to ask questions. This was great but the real highlights of the day came when we were left to our own devices for a few hours. Myself, Callum (my partner), James and Callum (James's partner) headed in a random direction only to find Beijing royalty. We found a very snazzy looking shopping centre filled to the brim with art and expensive shops, not besides rich looking people and stopped to have a look around. Weird, is possibly the best way to describe it.. anyway we went to a restaurant there for lunch, which happened to have some pet alpacas (very soft) where I had a very tasty lunch for a slightly extortionate price. After this the day proceeded with more cycling and another meeting, followed by a very nice meal out. We returned to the hostel for what I thought was going to be a quiet night, but clearly that wasn't what the other volunteers had in mind. Rather embarrassingly I was sung happy birthday to very loudly and presented with a McMuffin a card and a present, it was very thoughtful and kind but it didn't stop there. We all went out to four corners, a bar down some shifty alley, which we didn't leave until.. late. Anyway it was a great night so thanks to everyone who made it fantastic.

Day 2 - I woke up miserably early and with a pounding headache which was shortly cured by me falling asleep on the three hour coach to the great wall. Most of the volunteers pulled out all the stops to climb to the top of the wall, with a select few taking the gondola, Alastair and I continued along the wall for some way in search of better photos, I didn't really find any, but it was fun anyway. They say you don't become a man in China until you have climbed the great wall, so I feel as if in the past week I have successfully become a man in the eyes of civilisation (despite neither acting or feeling different). It wasn't the clearest of days but I still think the majesty of the wall is better conveyed through the photos I took than the words I can write down here. We then all took a rather dangerous looking toboggan down to the bottom of the wall which was fantastic despite the extremely slow Chinese woman that held everyone up.

Day 3 - This was a rather uneventful day involving the movement from our hostel to a hotel (in which I'm now staying) and my favourite dish so far Beijing duck, which was served alongside many other fantastic tasting dishes.

Day 4 - Lessons started at 9:30, we had arrived at Beijing no.50 middle school to start our mandarin learning. All seemed to go well despite the fact that right now I can only remember the words Biao zi from the lesson - i'll let you find out what that means... We ate lunch at the school before heading off to 798 art district which contained possibly some of the most amazing art collections I have ever seen, and I didn't even see all of it. Again words don't do it justice so i'll upload some pictures? We finished the day by heading to a western restaurant where we all ate rather merrily and with a large amount of 'would you rather' questions which weren't always to the best of tastes..

Today - Today we started early again at 9:30 which some volunteers couldn't handle (notably James again), and had 3 hours of extremely helpful mandarin tuition. In the afternoon we headed through the fantastic weather to visit Beijing's arguably biggest attraction - the Forbidden City! I will upload relevant pictures as well for this as it was truly remarkable. There's really not much more to say other than the fact that I am now lying in bed at midnight writing this very long and probably boring blog.

Thanks for reading, XD